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Monday, November 15, 2010

Dessert Fourplay

I promised you on Friday I'd return to the NY Chocolate show for Johnny Iuzzini's demo... So here's JOHNNY!I don't think I'll ever misspell his name again. His team of gorgeous assistants.

And the guy down in front with the camera? That's Johnny's dad, who always shows up to documents his shows for posterity. Sweet no? Johnny's an upfront, funny kind of guy and happily shared all his tricks of the pastry trade. I'll pass on as much of his wisdom as I could scribble down and translate later. Johnny was French-trained and went to CIA. Tools are important for his superb desserts at Restaurant Jean-Georges But every home 'chef' can get his/her hands on an isi whipped cream dispenser. Measuring ingredients is another biggie. Grandma may have used her hands to show you how much of this or that to add to a recipe, but that won't work in a pastry kitchen. Everything has got to be METRIC!Johnny uses 1.1 grams = 28th of an ounce as his standard measure. And use a thermometer - monitor your temperatures future pastry chefs out there! Liquid nitrogen..hmm well Johnny demonstrates dripping chocolate straight into nitrogen to create chocolate lace, but you can do it in your home kitchen using a bucket of ice cubes. Regarding chocolate - Johnny loves Valrhona, but other chocolates work well too - Guittard, Cluizel etc. depending on the dessert.*Buy 5 different (for example all 70%) brands of chocolates.Get to know their flavor profilesWrite down notes on file cards to refer to later.Chocolate is a lot like wine - it has terroir tooTry & Taste & Smell EVERYTHING!Smell your food first.And eat your food together, not separately. That's how it was meant to be eaten. CONTRASTS! It's important to have different textures, different flavors, different temperatures in a dessert.

Always think about the textures.Like think about Mac & Cheese. Then something crunchy to up the ante.Textures are HUGE with JohnnyHis desserts are: a single flavor, single tasting, single season at Jean-Georges.

He's not a reader - he likes to touch, smell, blow things up!

"Full blast! Full blast!

Done and done!

Google is my best friend - you can find any ingredient on the internet and where to buy it."

Et voila - Le dessert!'Chocolate Curd with crispy Cacao Nib Tuile, White Chocolate-Sesame Clouds'Quite a delicious mouthful!So that's your taste of Johnny Iuzzini.His book, Dessert Foreplay, is written with the home cook in mind. And I definitely tasted A LOT of chocolate putting together this post.I hope I did you justice Johnny :)

Later on Johnny was signing books and even talking to book buyer's sons on the phone Ha!

Tell me what his flourished handwriting says, I can't figure it out...

23 comments:

No cable, no show. But it looks like fun. The flourishes show an outgoing personality, one would think. Also, as a sister of a (now mostly retired from that frankly insane world) pastry chef, there is the artist in it.

What great demo!!! Love his dad recording - my favorite local chocolatier had his mom helping out when he first opened a shop.....now that he's branched out to San Francisco, I never see her. Maybe she's living it up in the city on the hill! Also LOVE your loot!

To dogs, chocolate may be delicious, but is toxic and potentially lethal! Most people don't know or just don't care about it. So please no kidding about "chocolate milk bone"! And NO chocolate for dogs, if you love them.

Hi Carol!Do you happen to have another picture of Johnny with his assistants up onstage? I wasnt in that picture you had on the site, and I was up on stage (to the far right of the pic). Just wondering... thats all!Thanks,Abby

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